Analysis

Even if Europe is still busy coming to terms with the enlargement rounds of the past decades and the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, the current geopolitical constraints require quick and new political responses to the EU’s enlargement policy. On the other hand, the necessary reforms and modernisation of the EU internally and of the candidate countries into liberal democracies will take time. This obvious dilemma is the starting point for a necessary discussion in all European countries about how EU enlargement policy must be reformed in order to take the future of the European Union into its own hands. In doing so, the respective national characteristics must be taken into account, both within the EU and between the candidate countries. Voters must be brought on board everywhere, which is perhaps one of the most important tasks.  And as if that were not challenging enough, the window of opportunity for reassessing EU´s enlargement policy is extremely narrow.

https://www.bpb.de/546717